Coffee With Jim

Epic road trips and fearless women were major new stories in the first decades of the 20th century. Often they were also at the center of promotional and marketing campaigns.

Alice Huyler Ramsey was a young New Jersey motorist and socialite who drove across the continent in 1909. Then there was Effie Hotchkiss, who in 1915 rode a motorcycle from New York to California and back with her mother in the sidecar. They were the first women to ride a motorcycle from coast to coast. And Emily Post, the future authority on etiquette, wrote a book, By Motor To The Golden Gate, about her epic 1915 transcontinental odyssey to California.

At Jim Hinckley’s America we tell people where to go and encourage people to discov er America with road trips. Alice Ramsey illustrates the importance of road trips, as well as unique chapters in the history of road trips.

Next week our series about pioneering women and the dawning of the great American road trip continues with the story of Effie Hotchkiss, the first women to ride a motorcycle from coast to coast.

Alice Huyler Ramsey was a young New Jersey motorist who drove across the continent in 1909. Then there was Effie Hotchkiss, who in 1915 rode a motorcycle from New York to California and back with her mother in the sidecar. And Emily Post, the future authority on etiquette, wrote a book, By Motor To The Golden Gate, about her epic 1915 transcontinental odyssey.

At Jim Hinckley’s America we believe that the best way to understand America is with a road trip. So, for us Alice Ramsey is a role model, an example of why inspiring road trips is so very important to ensuring that the American story continues into the Route 66 bicentennial and beyond.

Next week our series about pioneering women and the dawning of the great American road trip continues with the story of Effie Hotchkiss, the first women to ride a motorcycle from coast to coast. 

Route 66 relics lost and found. A Guide Book to Highway 66 by Jack Rittenhouse was published in 1946. That little guide book that would fit into a pocket transformed a Michigan factory workers life in the 21st century.

Scott Sheehan has spent more than a decade locating and documenting the motels, campgrounds, garages, and service stations listed in Rittenhouse's book. Those road trip adventures inspired Scott to pen a book. And they led to friendships that spanned the globe.

On today's episode of Coffee With Jim it's road trip inspiration, a Route 66 adventure, and a conversation about the magic that is the great Amerian road trip.

If you would like to know more about publisher and adventurer Jack Rittenhouse, he was the subject of the August 16, 2026 episode of Coffee With Jim. Our guest on that program was David Farmer, author of the new book, Jack Rittenhouse: A Western Literary Life piblished by University of New Mexico Press.

There are road trips, and then there are epic road trips. The later is exactly what Harriet White Fisher experienced when she became known as the first woman to drive around the world. Her remarkable journey began in the summer of 1909. She and her traveling companions, with a pet monkey and dog, drove across Europe, Egypt, India, Ceylon, China and Japan before crossing the Pacific. Their adventure continued with the drive across the American West and Midwest. But this incredible road trip is only part of Harriet White Fisher’s amazing story.

On this episode of Coffee With Jim we share another exciting chapter in the American story. And we introduce you to the amazing Harriet White Fisher known as the “Iron Woman” of Trenton.

Coffee With Jim from Jim Hinckley's America is made possible through listener support on Patreon. It is also sponsored by the RouteTrip USA, Roadrunner Lodge Motel in Tucumcari, Gilligan's Route 66 Tours, Deana Nelson State Farm Insurance, Two Lane America and the Enchanted Trails Trading Post & RV Park in Albuquerque. 

From the historic heart of Pontiac to the First Annual Mother Road Conference, from Docs Just off 66 in Girard to the innovative Route 66 Experience in Springfield as well as educational projects, the use of AI, websites, and the future of Route 66 we had lots to talk about. Our conversation with Casey Claypool, Director of the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway, on this epsidoe of Coffee With Jim was chock full of inspiration for road trips, for entrepreneurs and for adventurers. When it comes to Route 66 the passionate community leaders and business owners along this storied old highway in the Land of Lincoln dream big.

Join the conversation. Invite your friends. Share the adventure.

Cheerful idiots and road trips seem to go together, that was the conclusion derived at by a writer for Outing magazine in March 1905. Today the accounts of early automobile owners, manufacturers and their road trip adventures are an endless source of fascination. 

Let me introduce you to Elmer Lovejoy. In 1892 he rode a biccyle from a ranch in Colorado to the World's Fair in Chicago. Then he opened a bicycle repair and sales shop in Laramie, Wyoming and organized the Laramie Bicycle Club. On May 7, 1898, something new and startling rolled from his shop, the Lovejoy Novelty Works. It was a steam powered carriage proclaimed to be the first automobile built west of the Mississippi River. In 1905 Lovejay became the regional dealer for the Franklin Motor Car Company and in1907 established the first automobile rental business in Wyoming.

The years bracketing the turn of the century are rich with colorful stories and even more colorful characters. Horatio Nelson Jackson made the first successful transcontinental drive across the United States in 1903. Sponsored by Maxwell-Briscoe, Alice Huyler Ramsey became the first woman to drive an automobile across the United States in 1909. In 1908 a 22,000-mile automobile competition started at Times Square in New York. The finish line was in Paris, France.

Jim Hinckley's America is a shared adventure. Join us, invite your friends. And let's share the stories about great American road trips. 

Discover the wonders of Route 66 in the Land of Enchantment as we visit with Vickie Ashcraft, a founding member of the New Mexico Route 66 Alliance and owner of the Enchanted Trails Trading Post & RV Park on this episode of Coffee With Jim. Vickie's infectious enthusiasm for Route and dedication to the Route 66 community will do more than inspire a road trip or two.

When it comes to Route 66 in the Land of Enchantment we will have lots to discuss but topping the list will be the upcoming Chrome & Neon At 100 festivities.

www.route66alliancenm.org

www.enchantedtrails.com

Dust & Dreams: Roadmap of the American Soul (A Memoir of the Mother Road, in Her Own Words). In the first half hour author Crystal Sershen and illustrator Francis Strasser joins us to talk about this fascinating new book that tells the Route 66 story in a whole new way.

Published in March 2026 to coincide with the Route 66 centennial it is written as though the road itself was telling the story. The book is a fictional memoir that blends historical elementsand presents Route 66 as a living, evolving manifestation of the American dream.

In the second half of the program Reed Roberts, Public Relations Major at Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, The University of Oklahoma joined Jim Hinckley to discuss the upcoming OU Gaylord Route 66 Symposium and Showcase. The conversation also delved into the quest for authenticity that is fueling a resurgent interest in road trips, and the importance of preserving the stories of people that provide Route 66 with an infectious magic and preserve its history.

This is the second program in a series about the future of Route 66, and how a new generation will be inspred to experience the great American road trip and preserve the important legacy of this storied highway. On October 4 this conversation continues as our guest will be Casey Claypool, director of the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byways.

For more information about Dust & Dreams, or to order a copy - www.crystalsershen.com

For more information about The University of Oklahoma Gaylord Route 66 Centennial Research Symposium and Showcase, set for Friday, October 16 - www.ou.edu/news/articles/2026/September/route-66-research-centennial-showcase-gaylord-college

Alexander Winton attempted a grand road trip in 1901. His epic cross country adventure came to an abrupt end in the desert sands of Nevada.

A dozen years later thousands of adventuresome travelers were discovering America with road trips. By motorcycle and by automobile Edsel Ford, Emily Post, Bessie Stringfield, Effie Hotchkiss, A. L. Westgard and countless others set forth on grand adventures that ignited a passion for the great American road trip.

It was the dawn of a new era. Their stories told in books and magazine articles published at the time, their travel journals and postcards to family are time capusles rich in detail. These are just a few of the adventures that we will be sharing in this new series on Coffee With Jim.

Jim Hinckley's America is a shared adventure. Invite your friends and join us for shared adventures from the dawn of the great Amerian road trip.  

What happens to Route 66 after the centennial celebrations? Does Gen Z have interest in Route 66 and the great American road trip? How do we market Route 66 and road trips to the social media, Instagram influencer generation?

On today's episode of Coffee With Jim we answer a few of those questions. And we raise a few more. Our guest was Kiki Fox, a freelance travel writer and Route 66 enthusiast who serves as a volunteer for the Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership. She joined us to talk about her recent Route 66 adventures that included participation in the Great American Road Rally Celebrity Edition cross-country caravan from Chicago to Santa Monica, California.

We also discussed her work with the Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership, getting a new generation excited about road trips, and why Route 66 is the ultimate open road adventure.

Great American Road Rally - www.americanroadrally.com

Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership - www.route66roadahead.org